IN THE WOLD OF 3 WOMEN – EPISODE 3

In The World Of 3 Women – Episode 3
© Kayode Odusanya

Dapo knew something was wrong when he got the call from Kike, asking him to come over. ‘What could be the matter’, he thought to himself. He had noticed her voice didn’t have that normal sweetness to it. As he drove up to her house, he could not imagine what could be wrong.

He sighted her before he got up-close. She was walking in his direction, probably going to buy something from the store. The white t-shirt clung to her body, showing off the curves of her upper half.

“What’s up girl?” He shouted out as he tried to park the car on the side of the road. He had caught her by surprise and she jumped. She wasn’t looking too happy, and the fact that she didn’t recognize the car before he got up-close only meant something was really wrong.

“You got here really fast.” She said with a smile on her face that disappeared almost immediately. She crossed over to where Dapo was parked, and held up her right hand; signaling for him to remain in the car as he was about to get out. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek before walking over to the passengers’ side.

“So what’s on your mind? You want us to get married before you leave? The last time I checked, you were scheduled to travel tomorrow, and I thought you would be…”

“Dapo stop, I need to focus”. She said, stopping Dapo in mid sentence.

“Focus on what? You are acting really weird. It is like you tuned all your energy into school work, and now that you’ve graduated, you don’t know where to channel your energy.”

“It’s not that.” She said and laughed.

“What’s wrong?” Dapo got serious and took her in his arms. “Is Daddy okay?”

“Dapo, I am pregnant.” She looked ahead after dropping the bombshell on him. His facial expression went from worry to confusion. He didn’t talk for a while; his heart started beating fast like it was going to explode.

“I don’t understand, we always…we always used protection. I never had s€× with you without a c-ndom.” Dapo said, with a confused look on his face. She turned and looked at him, and he almost could not recognize who he saw. There was fury in her eyes.

“So what are you saying? That I got impregnated by someone else?” Tears were flowing freely down her face now. She was hyper-ventilating and fidgeting all over. She pushed off Dapo’s hands as he tried to calm her down. “You…you know I didn’t ever want to…want to do the s€× thing. I did whatever would make you happy.”

“But…But…I don’t understand how it happened.” Dapo said, looking very confused and dazed.

“I should be asking you that; you are the expert.” She said and let out a sarcastic laugh, and then started fidgeting again. “Dapo, you assured me that I would never get pregnant if…” She burst into tears before she could complete her sentence. She was crying now, and mumbling up words Dapo could not make anything out of.

“Kike calm down, people are watching us.” He said and tried to hold her again, but she hit his hands off.

“Let them see, there is no use hiding anything, my life is finished.” She said and burst into heavier sobs and Dapo tried to stop her from crying out loud by holding her head to his chest. She gave in this time, and her sobs declined slowly, and they became low sniffs after a couple of minutes.

“It can’t be more than probably a few weeks; must likely under a month. We can still fix the problem.” Dapo said and it made Kike stop the sniffs and look up.

“Fix the problem? How do you mean?”

“We could…we could see a doctor.”

“See a doctor and do what, Dapo?” Kike said. Her voice was on a very high pitch now. “You want me to…to have an abortion?” She shouted out and people started taking side glances at them and it made Dapo very uneasy.

“Calm down, what do you want me to do? I’m just twenty-three for Christ sake. I can’t be a father yet.” Dapo said, raising his voice to her for the first time since they started the argument. Kike quietly sobbed for a little while longer with her head down, not saying a word. It was like she was disappointed. Then she looked up at Dapo. “I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“You don’t love me; you’ve just been using me all this while.”

“Kike what are you talking about? Of course I do love you. I love you Kike, but let’s be…”

“No you don’t.” She said, cutting him off. The expression on her face was very sinister now, and Dapo was praying that she wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“Kike, stop talking like that.” He said and tried to cuddle her up, but she hit his hands away.

“Don’t touch me.” She said and burst into tears again. Dapo just let her be. His mind was racing and wondering what he would have to do, and how this situation could change his life forever. He noticed that she had stopped crying and he was waiting for her to say something, and then she looked up at him with no expression on her face. It left Dapo dumbfounded. He didn’t know if this was the part where she would pull out a knife from her pocket and stab him, or bath him with a bottle of acid.

After a long stare, she just reached for the door handle and got out of the car. Dapo attempted to stop her, but she held up a hand, and he just lay back.

“Let’s resolve this; we can work something out.” He said, but she was walking away from the car as fast as she could.

Dapo had never been this miserable in his life, and he felt so out of control of the wh0le situation. He felt like he had just killed someone who didn’t deserve to die. His brain was working like it had never worked before, but he couldn’t come up with any solution.

After sitting in the car for like twenty minutes, he drove off. He couldn’t even think of telling anyone, his mom would kill him. “Oh God, how did it get to this?” He said out loud.

“Dapo, is anything the matter?” His cousin, Tosin asked him. He titled his head to an angle, and looked up from where he was on the bed. She was standing by the entrance to his room, looking down at him. Tosin had been like the sister he never had, and he always told her everything, but he didn’t think she had the ability to handle this one.

“Hey Tosin, don’t be sneaking up on me like that, I don’t like it.” He said and rolled over, so his face was on the other side of the bed. The concern on her face turned to a frown, and then it went back to concern.

“Is everything okay? You look like something is bothering you.”

“Yes, you are the one bothering me. Just go, I’m not in a good mood right now.”

“Hey, are you sure?”

“Tosin, I said I don’t…” He was saying and turned over to catch a full glimpse of her. She was sitting by the tip of his bed now. “…please, just go.”

“Okay.” She got up and left reluctantly.

‘This one is way over your head, Tosin.’ He thought to himself as he got off the bed to lock his room door. His thoughts went back to his earlier conversation with Kike. ‘Do I really love her? If I did, I would do anything for her. I would do the right thing by accepting the baby.’ He sat up in bed and thought to himself. ‘But I do love her, I just didn’t bargain for this.’

____

“Dapo! Dapo!” Tosin called out, banging on Dapo’s room door. He felt a slight headache as he rolled in bed. He sat up for a while, not really knowing what woke him, till Tosin’s rambling at the door continued.

His left foot was caught in the sheets, as he tried to get off the bed, and he had to hold on to the door handle to keep from falling.

“Hey, are you okay in there? Dapo!” She called out, reacting to the loud noise she heard. The door finally swung open, and Dapo sluggishly went back to lie on the bed. It was like he had not fully gained consciousness. Tosin stared at him for a while, trying to read the expression on his face. Then her face went from no expression to amusement.

“Hey, don’t tell me you slept in your out clothes from yesterday?” She said as she walked into the room, still examining him. He was lying on his side, with his eyes half opened. She sat beside him and chuckled at his sight. Then she hit the bed, to shake him up, and his eyes came wide open. “Hey, Mom said you are meant to go to the store this morning, I thought you could drop me off at school on your way.”

He could see her mouth move, but his brain did not comprehend what she was saying. He looked at her, and her beauty reminded him of Kike and the conversation he had had with her yesterday. ‘Yesterday.’ He thought to himself, and everything came back in a flood of memory. It had almost seemed like a dream when he first woke up, but the more he focused, the more he realized it was no dream. ‘Oh poo! She is leaving for the U.S this morning.’ He thought and ran for the bathroom, grabbing his towel as he dashed out.

“What?” She said, astonished at his sudden movements. “Dude, are you…did you even hear a word I said?”

“I’ll be out in a minute.”

“Whatever; just make sure you don’t slip and fall.” She said as she walked away, shaking her head in dismay.

Twelve minutes later, they were driving out the house.”

“You want to tell me what is going on?” Tosin asked.

“What?” He said, and took a side glance at her, not exactly making eye contact. And his face was screwed up like he was trying to concentrate on something. “I’m taking you to school, that is what’s up. And I…”

“Dude, you have been behaving funny since last night.” She said and looked at her wrist watch. “And I’m sure you are not in a hurry to get me to school; this is just a quarter past 7a.m.” Dapo had gone into a sort of Trans now; it was like he was driving on auto pilot. She just kept on talking; her mouth kept moving but he didn’t hear a thing she said. He started thinking of what he would tell Kike. He thought of what her parents would think of the wh0le matter. He was thinking of the first thing he would tell her when he saw her. “I love you.” The words, intended as a whisper, came out quite audible.

“What?” You love me?” Tosin asked, with confusion on her face. He heard her and turned his face side-ways.

“What? Oh! I wasn’t talking to you.”

“Ha-ha! Thank God. You were starting to freak me out. So where are we going?” She said and lifted up her wrist. “By my watch, it is 7:20a.m I don’t…”

“Don’t tell me the time.” Dapo lashed out. She looked at Dapo for a while, and then looked straight ahead. She couldn’t just imagine what was going on in his head.

Tosin had gone with Dapo a couple of times to his Kike’s house, so she knew where they were headed, but she didn’t know what the hurry was all about. Dapo didn’t bother to park properly when he got to Kike’s house; he just stopped the car right in front of her gate and jumped out the car in a hurry. Tosin didn’t plan saying anything to him again since he shot her up the last time, so she just sat there. After he had disappeared into the house, she started feeling restless, so she turned on the radio. She changed stations until she heard the kind of music she liked. 5 minutes had not gone before Dapo returned looking downcast. He looked like someone that went for an A.I.D.S test and had found out that he was positive. He sat in the car but didn’t t-rn on the engine. After a couple of minutes, he spoke. “She is pregnant, and now she is gone”.

To be continued

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